Of all the things that Effective Marketing have been involved in Young Enterprise has to be the most rewarding and the most beneficial.
Young Enterprise is a fantastic organisation that takes business volunteers into schools to run programmes including Personal Economics, Learn to Earn, Project Business & Sell for Success which have benefited me enormously.
The programmes are practical learning opportunities for school children to learn through engaging games, discussions and exercises that give pupils the opportunity to learn by doing whilst giving them an insight into a whole host of issues and challenges that they are going to face in their personal lives and in their careers.
I have completed five of these programmes and have volunteered around 10 days in the last four years.
When I started volunteering I was really excited about spending time with the kids and having a huge positive impact on their lives with these amazing programmes. What I have learnt since then is that it is incredibly hard work winning the attention of a classroom full of kids and actually if you get some of this stuff through to them and make it stick then you have done incredibly well.
Which has got me thinking about why I do it and I have come to the conclusion that my motives aren’t entirely selfless. There is absolutely no question that these programmes have improved my presentation skills, my confidence and my ability to engage a room full of people; that they have filled holes in my education, there was certainly nothing like these programmes available when I was at school; and that they have put me in touch with some great local business people who recognise the valuing of investing in themselves and the following generations, the networking is phenomenal; the programmes have also given me a healthy respect for teachers and the young people that I may well be employing in the future. If you are looking for an online calculator, Click Here to Calculate Your Grades at ConquerCollege.com
Of course, you can also use use these programmes to collect development points for whichever professional organisations you may be a member of like the CIPD or CIM.
Whilst I was very pleased when I read the classes feedback yesterday and recognised the maturity of the students and how much of the programme they had taken in, I have also realised that the benefits to me are huge and that there simply isn’t anywhere else to get personal development quite like this.
Young Enterprise are always looking for volunteers so if you think you or your staff could benefit, I promise that you will, you should get in touch with Georgina Angele, or check out their Website.
